Launched in 1978, Minitel once meant that France led the world in online services but as the internet spread and Minitel failed to update its technology it eventually just couldn't compete.

Minitel is really an object lesson in the strengths and weaknesses of French state-directed capitalism. By putting a Minitel terminal in every household, France kick-started online commerce way ahead of any other country. But it was over-regulated from the start. For example, only existing newspapers could operate news services.

Then the text-based b&w service was never updated and countries other than France that wanted to adopt Minitel had to take the exact same system used as France - take it or leave it.

So a great technology (for the time) that could have been the bases for a massive new French industry essentially went to waste.

?You don't play the ANS synthesizer with a keyboard. Instead you etch images onto glass sheets covered in black putty and feed them into a machine that shines light through the etchings, trigging a wide range of tones. Etchings made low on the sheets make low tones. High etchings make high tones. The sound is generated in real-time and the tempo depends on how fast you insert the sheets.

This isn't a new Dorkbot or Maker Faire oddity. It's a nearly forgotten Russian synthesizer designed by Evgeny Murzin in 1938. The synth was named after and dedicated to the Russian experimental composer and occultist Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (1872–1915). The name might not mean much to you, but it illuminates a long running connection between electronic music and the occult.

Leap seconds can be introduced in UTC at the end of the months of December or June, depending on the evolution of UT1-TAI. Bulletin C is mailed every six months, either to announce a time step in UTC or to confirm that there will be no time step at the next possible date.

@Vorn - there are going to be some seriously clenched assholes until Curiosity touches down ok.@celan - cheers for that. I love the intricate corrections-of-corrections-of-etc. that go into timekeeping

Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces are equipped with a special ‘safe-busting’ sledgehammer that can be used in an emergency to break open the safe containing launch codes if it fails to open, a spokesman for the Rocket Forces, Col. Vadim Koval said on Wednesday.

Have you seen the video of the Australian Holocaust survivor who went back to one of the Concentration Camps with his kids and grandchildren and danced with them to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" outside the main gate?

BAMAKO — Islamist rebels in northern Mali took hoes and chisels to the tombs of ancient Muslim saints in the city of Timbuktu for a second day, ignoring international pleas to halt their campaign of destruction.

After smashing three ancient tombs on Saturday, the Islamist militants who consider the World Heritage shrines idolatrous, set about wrecking four mausoleums at the cemetery of Djingareyber, a local journalist told AFP.

Mali's government and the international community have expressed horror and outrage at the destruction of cultural treasures in the fabled city, an ancient desert crossroads and centre of learning known as the "City of 333 Saints".

On Saturday the Islamists destroyed the tombs of Sidi Mahmoud, Sidi Moctar and Alpha Moya, and on Sunday attacked Cheikh el-Kebir's mausoleum as residents stood by helplessly.

Crying "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great), the men circled the cemetery clasping tools such as chisels and hoes, but did not have construction vehicles that were used in Saturday's rampage.

You know, this would be a really good time for envoys from the Galactic Federation to show up, congratulating us on qualifying for membership and giving us a membership gift of plans to a Turd Fusion generator, which turns sewage into clean power.